Recalling Dan Henderson’s MMA Debut

Dan
Henderson on the night of his MMA debut in 1997. | Photo: M.
Alonso

Today, Jorge Guimaraes is known as the owner of
Black House gym and manager of fighters like Anderson
Silva and Antonio
Rodrigo Nogueira, together with Ed Soares. But old-school MMA
fans in Brazil recognize him as the guy who started bringing vale
tudo to Brazilian television.

Nineteen years ago, Guimaraes created a program called “Passando a
Guarda” (“Passing the Guard”) and introduced the idea to the
director of SporTV, Guilherme Zattar. “Passando a Guarda,” along
with the magazines Tatame and Gracie Mag, became the biggest
channels of communication with the growing number of vale tudo and
jiu-jitsu fans at the time. In 2002, thanks to the success of
“Passando a Guarda,” the channel Combate was created.

Last month, the show “Sensei SporTV” launched a new segment
recalling the best moments of “Passando a Guarda,” titled
“Repassing the Guard.” In the second edition, the program showed
backstage scenes from Brazil Open ’97, where Dan
Henderson made his vale tudo debut by beating two opponents in
the same night. Guimaraes recalled riding in the same van as
Henderson while going to the event, when “Hendo” told him, “I want
to prove the efficiency of Greco-Roman [wrestling], and I want to
make money with that.”

Henderson went on to defeat one of Carlson Gracie’s toughest black
belts, Crezio de
Souza, with ground-and-pound after 5:25, and then faced
Eric
Smith, who was coming off a decision win after 20 minutes
against Jose “Pele”
Landi-Jons. In the wrestlers’ confrontation between RAW Team
and Hammer House, Henderson picked up a quick win via guillotine
choke and began one of the most prodigious careers in MMA
history.